The present invention relates generally to apparatus for wet processing of textile fabric in endless rope form and, more particularly, to such wet processing apparatus wherein the fabric is circulated through a processing vessel by entrainment of the fabric in a jetted portion of the treating liquid.
Various forms of jet-type wet processing machines exist for dyeing and other liquid treatment of textile fabrics. These machines characteristically provide a vessel in which an extended length of the fabric is circulated in endless rope form, i.e., with the opposite ends of the fabric temporarily sewn together, to carry out a liquid treatment operation. More specifically, the vessel contains a bath of the treating liquid in which the predominant length of the fabric resides in plated form at any given time during the treatment operation, circulation of the fabric being accomplished by continuously withdrawing the fabric from the bath at one end or side of the vessel by a driven lifter reel and then returning the withdrawn fabric-into the bath at the other side or end of the vessel by means of a venturi tube or similar jet or nozzle structure through which a portion of the liquid bath is continuously pumped to entrain and direct the fabric back into the bath. The major portion of the fabric within the bath progresses slowly through the bath under the combined action of the lifter reel and the jet, together with the natural tendency of the fabric to float in the bath.
While jet-type fabric processing machines of the above-described type function satisfactorily for their intended purposes, efforts are ongoing within the textile industry to develop improved wet processing apparatus which will minimize the volume of the liquid bath required for a given processing operation, thereby to reduce the costs of processing chemicals as well as the costs and environmental hazards attendant to disposing of and/or cleaning waste processing liquid remaining at the completion of a processing operation. Similarly, the need and desire continues within the industry to develop wet processing machinery of increased capacity and production rates over conventional equipment without increasing at the same time the bulk and floor space required for the machinery.